Joy To The World! The Lord Is Come.

This is one of my favorite Christmas Carols. Did you know it was not written as a Christmas song? 300 years ago, Isaac Watts was a young man who did not like the music his father was using in his church services. Isaac complained to his dad about how boring and stuffy the music was. Rev. Watts told him that if he did not like the music, to write something better. He did.

Joy to the World was Isaac’s attempt to write Psalm 98 into contemporary language. It is a psalm that talks about creation bursting into song to celebrate what God has done.

>Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things…

>Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music…

Even during the craziness of 2020, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we can have joy. The song goes on to say:

Let earth receive her king:

Let every heart prepare him room,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

As we saw the Christmas Star appear, I believe that was heaven and nature singing the wonders of his love.

I was always puzzled as to why Isaac wrote, “Joy to the World! The Lord IS come.” The teacher in me cringes at that because it is grammatically incorrect. It should say, “Joy to the World! The Lord HAS come.” This morning, while listening to the song it hit me. Isaac is right. The Lord IS come. He did come to a stable in Bethlehem, over 2000 years ago, but that was not a one-time event. He also comes into our messy world and into our personal lives at every moment. He is as close as we allow him to be.

Let earth receive her king: Let every heart prepare him room.

Trust him and know that he wants to work in your life. Look around, count your blessings and know that he has already been working in your life. Every breath we take is a gift from him. No matter what we see, hear or read we can have joy because as this verse of the songs says, the Savior reigns.

Joy to the World! the Savior reigns.

Let men their songs employ.:

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

I wish you a joy filled Christmas. Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Here are links to different versions of Joy to the World.

My favorite version by Chris Tomlin https://youtu.be/tC3SwhJsLqU

By Pentatonix https://youtu.be/-Xo64Q2ucQ8

A traditional version https://youtu.be/kyciMYZq2